1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of demand estimation. More particularly, this invention relates to demand estimation using auction price analysis.
2. Art Background
It is often desirable in a marketing/sales or other application to determine the likely purchasing behavior of consumers in response to product pricing. Such a determination may be useful, for example, in setting product prices to achieve a desired sales target and/or in generating sales forecasts in response to product price changes.
One prior method for determining the likely purchasing behavior of consumers is to perform statistical regression analysis on point-of-sales data. Unfortunately, such a method usually requires complete data on sales activities and customer characteristics. As a consequence, such a method is usually complex and costly and often yields only limited success.
Other prior methods for determining the likely purchasing behavior of consumers include conducting consumer surveys by questionnaires and/or interviews and running product sales for limited times and/or at limited locations to gather relevant data. Unfortunately, such methods are usually relatively time-consuming and costly. In addition, such methods may be subject to errors caused by uncontrolled factors such as weather conditions which may impact consumer shopping behavior as well as efforts by competitors to meet or beat a sales price.